A Highland Song Review (Abion47)
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
---{ Comments }---
It's hard to fairly review this game because it's unlike any game I've ever played. Where else can you get an adventure/platformer with rhythm mechanics? But the game meshes the genres together seamlessly in a journey about a girl discovering the edges of her world and, through it all, learns what and who she is. You play as Moira, a young Scottish teen setting out to brave the wilderness in defiance of her worrywort mother in order to meet up with her Uncle Hamish who has promised Moira that if she can reach the sea by Beltane, he will show her something wonderful.
From a purely objective standpoint, the gameplay isn't complex. For most of the game, it's a fairly standard 2D platformer wearing the pants of a non-action adventure, and you are tasked with simply getting from point A to point B. It is an open world, however; there is far more than one way to traverse it, and there are clues you find along the way that open entirely new paths to explore. There are items to find, people to meet, and special locations, all of which influence the way the journey and the story ultimately play out. And then for some travel segments, the game turns into a simple rhythm game where you have to time jumps to the song that starts playing. These segments appear to be procedurally generated, too, as I heard different songs and got different rhythm maps when crossing the same stretch of terrain.
The art style is simple but thematic. The main character's graphics aren't AAA quality, but the Miyazaki-reminiscent simplicity and fluidity very much works for this kind of game. The landscapes are gorgeous from a distance, and from up close they become a sort of watercolor painting affect that has a certain charm to it. The only thing I would say is that when you find more modern set pieces like a dam or a chair lift, the mechanisms don't seem to fit in with the naturalistic style of the rest of the art. Of course, maybe that was the intention.
Where the game really shines is in the music. The entire soundtrack consists of Scottish tunes that ooze the sensation of freedom and adventure with every note. Even the simplistic nature of the rhythm mechanics are deeply satisfying when played alongside one of the dozen or so songs, running through fields, jumping hills, and keeping up with your deer friends. Between the vast number of ways to reach the aforementioned point B, the large number of completionist goals, and the revelation that the story changes based on how (and how quickly) you reach your destination, there is a fair amount of replayability in this game as well for people who want to know every aspect of Moira's world as well as Moira herself.
Like I said, this is very much a unique type of game, and as such, it will probably only appeal to a niche audience that enjoys such unique indie experiences. But for those who fall in this niche, this game will likely become a memorable favorite for quite some time.